


Pompeii

by sarahlouwho



Category: Bastille (Band)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2020-06-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:46:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24524839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarahlouwho/pseuds/sarahlouwho
Summary: Based on the music video for Bastille's 2013 hit song "Pompeii," we enter into a world of confusion, dystopia, and destruction. Through the eyes of our protagonist, we learn how she makes her way through this world, while learning how to trust others.
Kudos: 3





	Pompeii

When she closed her eyes she could see them. Hands grasping out to get her, pupils widening, filling every eye with complete darkness. Ash fell all around her like a clouded snow. She reopened her eyes. Her hands held tightly to the gate she stood behind, knuckles white. She breathed in, breathed out and pulled herself up and over the the gate, a trail of steam close behind from her breath. Sprinting toward an empty building in the middle of an overgrown wheat field, sirens began blaring and she picked up her pace, breathing sporadically. Finally, she reached the door and jiggled the handle; locked. Panicked, she began to kick boards that blockaded a window. Crack! The wood gave way and she crawled inside just in time to evade the searchlights. She rubbed her eyes and fell to the floor, exhausted.  
"Open your eyes." Something cold and metallic poked her back. "Open your eyes now or I"ll shoot." The voice was calm, but urgent, around her age, male. Her eyes shot open and she spun around, slowly standing back up. "I'm just trying to get away." He lowered the pistol. "How do I know you're not one of them?" He asked, raising the pistol again. This time, she called his bluff. She looked down the barrel, rolled her eyes, then walked through a doorway to his right. He followed. "How did you find this place?  
"A map. I found a map."  
"Oh. Okay..." He sat the gun down on a coffee table. The house was fully furnished, as if its owners just packed up and left. "Are you just gonna sit in here and die?"  
"is that what you're doing?"  
"I have a gun..."  
"Then you'll just live a little bit longer, won't you." She hit a table and pulled out the map. A lit lantern hung from the ceiling, dimly lighting the situation.  
"Then what are you going to do?"  
He had walked closer and closer and was practically breathing down her neck.  
"I"m going to escape." Finally he looked at the map. It was much larger than any map he had ever seen! Providences and city names he had never read before scattered the worn out, torn paper. Red lines branched along the page, mapping out paths that ultimately led to a huge circle outlining the word "FREEDOM."  
"Well, how are you going to do that? Freedom? From the plague?"  
"It's possible. Just look! There's more than just our little world. There's places with light! With no one around! No brainwashing, no soul-destroying. Just, merely, living. That's all. Living."  
"You never answered my question, though. How did you find this place?"  
"Simple." She pointed at a starred word saying 'SANCTUARY.' "This is a safe place. For now." Something began rapping at the door.  
"Not for much longer," He said, grabbing his gun again. She looked over the map once more, memorized it, then folded it back up in a hurry and pocketed it. "Let's go."

She led them down to an old ale cellar and out a passage under the fields. In the distance he heard the tin, metallic gunshot. And another. Then a third. "We're gonna die out here. We're gonna get caught!" He yelled, flinging the gun around in the air.  
"You need to stay quiet!"  
"Can I see the map?"  
"Hush!!!" She hunched down, waiting for the searchlights to pass. He followed suit. Once the spot was out of their sight, they got back up and kept running. She could see it. A line of brightness that seemed to create a new horizon out of the darkness. "There it is!" She yelled. "I knew it was close!" He fumbled and fell. The pistol went off. Time seemed to move in slow motion as she turned her head to see the heads of their pursuers whip their helmets around to stare straight at them. She grabbed his arm and pulled him back up. "What do you think you're doing!?"  
"I tripped, it's not my fault."


End file.
